


Three generations of love and heartache

by Pearlislove



Series: Mamma Mia oneshots [8]
Category: Mamma Mia! (2008), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
Genre: Bittersweet, Family Feels, Gen, Grandmother & granddaughter bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 19:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15691896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: Ruby and Sophie visit Donna's grave.





	Three generations of love and heartache

**Author's Note:**

> I really really love Ruby & Sophie <3
> 
> Like the character Ruby Sheridan is paper thin in the movie but there is SO much to explore that could build her up to a complete character.
> 
> The years for Donna's birth and death is artistic license with a splash of truth mostly deprived from the decond Mamma Mia! Movie because the timelines are crazy...
> 
> I count it like this:
> 
> Ruby & Fernando met during the summer of '59, placing Donna's birth in early 1960, especially considering that I believe Domna was born early.
> 
> Donna graduated school in 1979, and Sophie should therefor have been born in early 1980
> 
> That place the first movie in 2000
> 
> Meaning that the second movie is in 2005
> 
> Meaning Donna died in 2004

"Are you sure you're ready for this grandmother?" Sophie asks quietly. She is standing at the end of the path, hands crossed over her visibly swelling stomach as she observed her grandmother.  
  
"I need to do it eventually, Sophie. I missed the funeral and it took me a year to find out she died..." Ruby's voice break, tears threatening in her eyes as she thought of how much she had truly let down Donna and Sophie. "This is the least I can do for her."   
  
Still looking concerned, Sophie nonetheless nodes, one hand gesturing in among the tombstones. "The third one on the second row." She explained, her own eyes brimming with tears as well.   
  
She missed her mother, Ruby knew that, and though she wished to comfort, she barely knew to deal with her own sorrow.   
  
Swallowing roughly, she set down the path towards the gravestone.   
  
Around her, an unusual silence fill the air. Her high heels have been swapped for flats, her expensive dresses with crunchy, swooshing fabric replaced with a simple summer dress she found in a local shops, and she makes no noise.   
  
As Ruby walks up to her daughters grave, she feels nothing like herself and yet more at home than she has in many, many years.   
  
It doesn't take her long to find the intended headstone. It's the newest one in the row by far, and it's white marble surface glitters in the sunlight.   
  
_Donna Sheridan_  
  
_Beloved mother, wife and friend_  
  
_January 5th 1960 - June 14th 2004_

  
The moment Ruby sees the letters, the tears return with vengence. It hurts deep in her soul as she reads the words and realize that no one had even known her daughters full name.   
  
That Donna had taken a part of the heritage that Ruby gave her into her grave, and now it was gone for good.   
  
Once, she had been _Donna Maria Valentina Sheridan_ , the daughter of the famous Ruby Sheridan and Fernando Cienfuegos.   
  
Now, she was only _Donna Sheridan_. The woman without a family who treated everyone as though they were. The single mother with the beautiful daughter who loved everyone she ever met.   
  
Overwhelmed and sobbing desperately, Ruby could feel her legs give in beneath her. Helplessly, she fell to the ground, landing on her knees with the flowers and the gift for Donna which she brought to the grave still held tightly to her chest.   
  
"Grandmother! Are you alright?" Seeing her grandmother fall, Sophie called out, worried and wanting to see if she was okay.   
  
As if from afar, Ruby heard what Sophie said, and she slowly managed a tired nodd in her direction. She wishrd she could talk to her and reassure her verbally, but has no strength in her to do so.   
  
Carefully, she arrange the roses in front of the stone, her slender fingers tracing the golden letters.   
  
_Donna Sheridan_   
  
"I knew I didn't possess you, and with all my heart, God bless you. You were my love and my life. You’re still my one and only..." She whispers, half singing as the impulse come to her. With her other hand, she is still facing the bouquet, trying to make it look as perfect as possible.   
  
_Beloved mother, wife and friend_   
  
Ruby looks up the path towards Sophie. Sees the worry on the young face, her hands clamped around the baby bump in a protective manner as she strode back and forth in front of the water pump.   
  
"I’ve never felt this strong...I’m invincible, how could this go wrong?" She turns back towards the headstone, quietly wondering what her daughter would say if she could see her now. "No, here, here’s where we belong." She looks towards Sophie again, her eyes focusing on her midsection in particularly. In only a few short months, she'd be a great grandmother. "I see a road ahead that I never thought I would dare to tread..."   
  
_January 5th 1960 - June 14th 2004_   
  
The last thing she puts out in front of the stone, in the middle of the flowers, is a plastic case. Inside the plastic case there is a framed photo of Ruby and Donna.   
  
It's old, a black and white polaroid taken on a beach somewhere when Donna was only a few years old. Smiling, the young Ruby holds on to her daughter as the young girl tries to throw sand at the camera, laughing all along.   
  
It had always been Donna's favourite, the only photo Donna brought with her when she left her home for the last time.

And so, Ruby put it at her grave, as to prove that she had not forgotten the times when she and her daughter loved one another.

From above, she felt a hand landing on her shoulder.

“Mum would be proud of you for doing this” Sophie whispered. Her blue eyes were focused on the stone, not noticing Ruby as she looked up at her. “But I know she’d want even more to actually be here...I wish she was” Sophie looks sad, new tears flowing down her cheeks as she thought of her mother.

”Me too, little girl. Me too. There are simply no words for how dearly I’d want my daughter to be here.” She paused, reaching out to put her own hand on top of Sophie’s. “But I know that if my daughter was here, then I would not be, and I am most grateful for the chance I’ve been given.” She stands up, pulling Sophie tight - as tight as she can with her bulging abdomen between them - and hug her just as a loving grandmother would.

 

“I love you grandmother” Sophie hug her back, struggling to reach but doing as best she could.  


“I love you too” Ruby echoed.

 

For awhile, they simply stood like that, hugging one another and sharing both sorrow and joy.

 

Then, as the moment passed and they separated, Sophie offered her grandmother her arm, and they left the graveyard hand in hand.

  
They hadn’t always done everything the way they should have. They hadn’t always been as kind and patient as good as they would have wished.  But they had each other, and that's all that mattered.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Kudos & comments please! <3


End file.
